If you run an e-commerce site, your product pages will always be your bread and butter. When people use search keywords that cause them to end up on product pages, it’s very likely that they’re serious about buying something. Compared to the other pages on your site – blog posts, for instance – product pages will always be your most profitable content and will always have the highest conversion rates on your site.
With that in mind, it stands to reason that if you want to optimize your website’s conversion rates in order to generate more sales from your existing traffic, you should work on your product pages before you look at anything else. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling disposable vapes or something else; a great product page will always be a reliable cash generator for your business.
So, how do you optimize your product pages for the best possible conversion rates? In this article, we’ll discuss the five features that a great product page should always have.
Original Description Text Gives Your Page a Chance to Appear on Google
Every product page on an e-commerce site needs description text explaining that product. If you’re a brand and are selling your own products, that’s a relatively easy job because you don’t have too many product pages to worry about. If you’re a reseller, though, your website could have hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of products. When faced with the seemingly insurmountable goal of writing descriptions for hundreds of products, new e-commerce website owners often try to take the easy way out and simply copy product descriptions from other websites.
If that’s what you’ve done with your website, you’re probably wondering why your product pages receive no traffic – and the reason is that there is almost no chance that Google will ever send traffic to a product page with no original text. If you copy and paste a sentence from your product description into Google, you’ll probably find that there are dozens of other websites with that exact same text. Why would Google ever show your page as a search result when it presents the same information as dozens of other sites? There is simply no replacement for the original product description text.
Helpful Description Text Walks Customers Through the Buying Process
If you’ve read anything about optimizing a website for the best possible search engine positioning, you’ve probably read that having a high volume of text can potentially help a page achieve a higher ranking. If you’re not a writer, though, writing a high volume of text about a product probably feels like a daunting task. Here’s the trick to writing a great product description: There’s no need to worry about the word count. Instead, focus on making the text as helpful as it can be and providing the information you would want to see as a consumer. A good product description always answers these questions.
- What is this product?
- What does this product do?
- Why is this product better than the other products a potential buyer could choose instead?
- How does this product work, and how can the user have the best possible experience with it?
If your description answers all of the questions above, it’s most likely as long as it needs to be.
High-Quality Original Photography Helps Your Page Stand Out from the Competition
Product photography is another area where new owners of e-commerce websites often cut corners. How can you find product photos for your site if you’re a reseller with hundreds of products? You probably just download stock photos from your distributor or from the products’ manufacturers.
Using stock photography probably won’t hurt your product pages’ ability to generate traffic, but it will make your website feel a bit generic to users who have probably seen the same photos on many other websites. Instead, consider building a staging area and taking your own product pictures. A small photo box is very inexpensive to buy, and any modern smartphone can take professional-quality pictures. Having original photography can also improve your website’s chance to appear on Google Images, which can be great for traffic. For some types of products, it’s very common for potential buyers to browse Google Images instead of using the standard text search.
Easy Access to Ancillary Products Encourages Customers to Buy More
In many cases, having the best possible experience with a product will involve purchasing ancillary products. Accessories like a travel case and a USB flash drive, for instance, can greatly enhance the experience of buying a notebook computer. In other cases, ancillary products are practically required. A new printer won’t last long, for instance, on its starter ink cartridges – so it’s always wise to buy a full set of full-sized cartridges when you buy a new printer.
As an e-commerce website owner, it’s always wise to look for cross-selling opportunities that you can display on your product pages. This is a common technique used by major e-commerce retailers; you’ll always see a section with a title like “Items frequently purchased together” when you browse products on Amazon. Increase your average revenue per order by making those same types of recommendations on your site.
Alternative Product Suggestions Keep People on Your Website
Although your product pages will always enjoy the highest conversion rates on your site, there will still be a significant number of users who view those pages but ultimately leave without buying anything. In some cases, there’s nothing you can do about those missed sale opportunities. Sometimes, people who visit your website are only window shopping and aren’t planning to buy anything immediately. In other cases, though, a person may view a product and decide that it isn’t quite the right fit.
When people decide not to buy the product they’re currently viewing, you’ll have an opportunity to keep them on your site if you present recommendations for alternative products – so don’t forget to add some suggestions to your product pages. You might put the recommendations, for instance, in a small box below the product description. Alternative product recommendations encourage people to browse and remain on your website longer – and the longer someone stays on your site, the more likely that person will be to make a purchase.
